How do I get the subsidized price for a new phone when I already have a plan?

Question

I have been a Verizon customer since September. I have a dumb phone, and I'm really having trouble keeping up with my life. Now that the Droid 4 is coming out in February I've decided that it's time to upgrade. The Droid is coming out at $199 with a two year contract, I think. My question is, what do I have to do to get the subsidized price for the phone? In my current contract I can't upgrade until 2013. Should I cancel that contract all together and just pay the ETF? Then get a new contract with the new phone? Can I even do that? Also, would there be any way to keep my phone number in this situation?
Thanks for your help, Verizon Community!  

Answer 1

koddienj wrote:
Ok I kno it ***** but here is what i have done in the past when i had your same situation I have been a VW customer for about 13 years so i had old equipment lying around that i could use but If you are a new verizon customer you will have to find an older phone that does not require a monthly data package. You say you have a dumb phone so your old equipment mite all ready work for this. Here is what you do
Go to Verizon and get the new phone you want tell them you will be adding a line to your account so you can sign up and get the new Droid 4 phone for the discounted price of $199 tell them you want to add the phone to your plan and convert your existing plan to a family plan this should be around the same price as you are currently paying unless you have an unlimited plan. But there is an extra monthly charge of $10 more per month per xtra phone on the plan up to 4 + the 1 original phone. so you are allowed 5 total on a family plan.
Then the following day you transfer the new phone to your old number and vise versa.
You now shut off the old phone and put it in a draw. You now have the new phone you want and dont have to pay the early term fee. the early term fee is pro rated so every month it will go down by $5-$10 per month im not sure exactly how much. You can call verizon and ask exactly how much it is
Although this way it will end up costing you $240  24mo x $10 you do not have to pay it all up front and if you ever have a problem with your droid ie (breaks,stolen,loss) you have a back up that will be ready to go Plus you get to keep your current number
Hope this helps
Actually, if you are not ALREADY on a Family Plan, it WILL end up costing you more than this extra $10/month. For example, if you are on the 450 minute Individual Plan, you are paying $40/month and possibly $20/month for unlimited texting. The smallest Family Plan(700 minutes/month) would put you at $70/month and if you want the same unlimited texting, it would be an additional $30/month. This is $100/month vs $60/month on an Individual Plan which comes out to an additional $40/month x 19 months(24 months - 5 months you have already completed on your original line) = $760 ADDITIONAL you would pay until you could cancel your original line. If you wanted to keep your original #, though, you would instead pay an ADDITIONAL $960($40 x 24 months) until you could cancel your new line. Either way, it would MUCH cheaper to just pay full retail for the new phone.
Remember, this is ONLY if you are currently on an Individual Plan and change to a Family Plan with 2 phones. If you are currently on a Family Plan with others, and have the ability to add an additional line, your additional payments would not be this high.